In Belgium, fans of arcade games are in luck lately! After Star Wars Battle Pod and MotoGP, more new games reach our country. After some renovation works, the famous Reflex arcade in Ostend has indeed installed the new Jurassic Park Arcade environmental shooter by Raw Thrills, two MotoGP and Crossy Road Arcade, a very addictive redemption video game! It's a two player Frogger-like game with cute graphics and funny animations. We rarely see video redemption games in Belgium. This is unfortunate because there are many titles available and unlike mechanical games where earnings are often due to luck, here the number of tickets earned depends directly on the player's skills. The Reflex also announced the imminent arrival of Grand Piano Keys, another video redemption with a giant piano where you have to press the keys that light up to play familiar tunes. Reflex arcade is located on the corner of Langestraat and Vlaanderenstraat. This will be another addition to the twenty arcade games already in the arcade. So you know where to go if you visit Ostend...

We don't see new arcade games in Belgium very often, but when it happens, it's the heavy weights! Today, two brand new titles are coming to us: the first one is MotoGP, the best motorcycle racing game since Manx TT. Thanks to its license, MotoGP offers the players the chance to ride the motorbikes of the greatest drivers such as Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez. The game features authentic circuits from the championship and graphics are stunning! The cabinet blows air into the face of the player to simulate speed. Prepare for the mind-blowing races! The other novelty is the Flat Screen edition of Star Wars Battle Pod! Relive the greatest battles of the first trilogy flying an X-Wing, a snow speeder, a moto-speeder and an even Darth Vader's TIE Advanced! A new level; the battle of Takodana from the seventh episode is announced for this summer. You can play both games as soon as today at 4pm at Coney Island arcade on spring funfair in Mouscron. There, you will find two linked-up MotoGP arcade machines and a Star Wars Trilogy Flat Screen Edition cabinet, but also Aliens Armageddon, Winter X Games SnoCross, Dead Heat, a F355 Challenge deluxe cabinet and the classic Sega Rally 2 racing game. That's plenty of fun! Mouscron spring funfair will end on Sunday, March 20th so visit it before that date if you live in the area. Coney Island will then visit other cities such as Charleroi, Namur, Tournai, Liège and Mons. Maybe it will stop near your place... And if it is not the case, these games are worth the trip!

Groove Coaster 3 Link Fever is already the 4th version of Taito's musical game. The first Groove Coaster was released 3 years ago. This time the cabinet and the interface become red coloured. 29 new songs are already available for the game release, they are divided in different categories: Pop, Anime, Game, Vocaloid, Variety and Original. Players can now exchange messages and information about the songs via the online service. They can also register their friends to have access to their rankings and results. A collaboration with the Smartphone version starts for the launch of the arcade version.

Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS. Maxi Boost ON is at last available in Japan. It's the first title in the Extreme VS. series that features a national online play mode! There are already 160 mechas available including some from recent Gundam anime series: the YG-111 Gundam G-Self piloted by Bellri Zenam and the CAMS-05 Mack Knife piloted by Mask (Gundam Reconguista in G), the ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos piloted by Mikazuki Augus (Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS). Other Gundams will be regurarly added. Conquest mode have been renewed: a new course, a new stage: the capital Territory of Gundam Reconguista in G, new BGM and a new final boss. The EX Burst system has been revised with the addition of 3 functions for new strategies: Fighting burst (increases melee attack), Extend burst (avoids critical situations) and Shooting burst (cancels ranged attacks). A national competition is launched: "VS. Conquest pre-season". Players win contribution points if they win a battle. According to their contribution points and their ranking, they can get a premium G ticket to exchange against the season reward: an emblem icon and special gauge design. As usual in the Extreme VS. series, the opening movie song is composed by a famous band. This time it's NO FUTURE (Prototype ver.) by SiM, a Japanese alternative metal band from the Kanagawa Prefecture formed in 2004.

If there are musical themes remaining anchored in the brains of players of the '90s, Streets of Rage II music tracks are part of them! Yuzo Koshiro's masterpieces composed in 1992 rhythmed the endless beating of punks that composes this beat'em all sporting a dark urban atmosphere. Originally released on Mega Drive, Streets of Rage 2 (Bare Knuckle II in Japan) has been released in arcades later. The arcade version was released in Europe only as a Mega Play cartridge, it is identical to the US version of the game; display has a 60Hz refresh rate, Blaze panties is not visible during his flying kicks and Mr. X has lost his cigar. The music was composed on NEC PC-88 and the original computer files are among the sources used to remaster the soundtrack. This vinyl should have been released in January, but the quality of the test pressing was deemed insufficient so Data Discs decided to rework the sound quality to achieve optimal results. The soundtrack of Streets of Rage II is offered as a double vinyl package and is available in 3 different editions: a standard edition with black vinyl for £22.99 (€29.16), a color edition with translucent vinyl featuring a black smoke effect and a limited edition with a black smoke effect and spots of blood at £24.99 (€31.70). The second vinyl includes alternative versions of musical themes, prototypes and unused pieces. All editions contain 2 lithographic prints. Pre-orders opens today at 13:00 CET for European subscribers to the Data Disc newsletter, at 17:00 CET for US subscribers and at 20:00 CET for the rest of the world. Delivery is scheduled for early April. Today, Yuzo Koshiro continues to compose music for video games, his latest creations appearing in the Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5DX racing game released two months ago. Hopefully the Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune music will receive a vinyl release in the future... In the meantime, visit the Data Discs website to order the Streets of Rage II O.S.T.!

The latest version of Konami's popular online arcade mahjong game is available in Japan since yesterday. It is name Mahjong Fight Club ZERO. A new "Mahjong Planet" mode is added for the inexperienced players, they explore various planets and learn the rules and subtilities of the mahjong game. There is also a collaboration with the magazine Kindai Mahjong: players can play against Shigeru Akagi, the main character of the manga Akagi: Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai (written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto) published in Kindai Mahjong since 1992.

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Arcade Edition starts operation in Japan today and will also be available in a few days all over the world. This title is developed by Sega in collaboration with Nintendo. This is the fifth game in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series and the first to be released in arcades. The game consists of 9 events: 100m, 100m hurdles, long jump, trampoline, 100m freestyle, hammer throw, javelin throw, archery and rhythmic gymnastics. There are 20 characters and each has its specificity (power, speed and technique). The cabinet features a pad with sensors and two large joysticks with a button on each. Depending of the discipline, the player must therefore really run, jump at the right time or rotate the joysticks as quickly as possible. Up to 4 cabinets of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Arcade Edition can be linked for multiplayer. You can see a video of the gameplay shot at EAG International 2016 here.